


Merry Christmas, Karone.

by kiirotsubasa



Category: Power Rangers in Space
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-07 02:23:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiirotsubasa/pseuds/kiirotsubasa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following the events of "Countdown to Destruction" the Rangers are settled back on Earth. A week after their first Christmas together post-powers, Ashley and Cassie take Karone on a walk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merry Christmas, Karone.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [purplestripe66](https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplestripe66/gifts).



The bitter winter cold nipped at Karone as she crunched her way into the woods. And she loved every moment of it.

“Ecliptor didn’t like the cold,” she mused wistfully, stroking a fir branch as she and Ashley walked through the trees. “We always trained on planets close to their suns. All of this snow…the frost…it’s beautiful.” Ashley smiled to herself and put an arm around Karone’s shoulder, pulling her into a hug. 

“Did you get anything like this when you were…”

“Young.” Cassie quickly finished Ashley’s sentence for her. “Did you and Ecliptor ever do anything to exchange gifts or celebrate?”

“Not really,” Karone replied, smiling as the three women continued to walk. “Dark Specter would throw a banquet for every new planet he conquered. I would always be given gifts by the other Monarchs of Evil during those, especially when I was a kid. But those were always at the decree of Dark Specter. Never because someone wanted to give me a gift…”Cassie went to speak again, but was cut off as Karone continued. “But it was okay. You all more than made up for it this year.” She smiled as she pulled up the sleeve of the new purple coat (a gift that had Carlos’ name on the tag, but that Karone was sure had been picked out by Ashley) and flashed the delicate silver watch that Andros and Zhane had clubbed together to buy. “You know, I’m surprised that Andros made the effort to buy anything for anyone. They don’t celebrate on KO-35, so…”

“He took some convincing,” Ashley laughed, taking her arm off of Karone’s shoulder and stretching. “But Zhane really got into the idea…”

“…Even if he’s not the best shopper in the galaxy,” Cassie interjected, thinking of the pink fuzzy dice currently adorning her bathroom mirror, since she hadn’t gotten round to getting a car since transitioning back to life on Earth. 

“It’s the thought that counts,” Ashley countered, though she couldn’t deny that the yellow Star of Amortia pendent from Andros was a vast improvement on the Racing Grandmothers that Zhane had bought.

“It was a good day.” Karone suddenly ground to a halt. “Please, don’t think I’m being ungrateful, because I am enjoying being out in the snow and among the trees, but where exactly are we going?” Ashley and Cassie smiled. They had left the boys sleeping off a large post-Christmas lunch back at Ashley’s condo and ventured out in the snow, only telling Karone that this was her belated Christmas present. 

“You’ll see,” Ashley said, dragging Karone along. “But hey, let me ask you something. Do you remember much about last Christmas?” Karone’s blood ran cold. She didn’t like remembering her life as Astronema. She tried not to think about it where possible. She was still adjusting to being Karone again and reasoned that, if she were going to be successful, she needed to stop dwelling on her time in Dark Specter’s army.

“Not really,” she lied, shaking her head. 

“You were watching us shop,” Cassie prompted. Karone’s eyes grew wide.

“How did you know?”

“D.E.C.A. had a sensor. It didn’t always work, she and Alpha spent a lot of time tuning it, but it was good every so often. She could tell us when you were spying on us.”

“I’m so…”

“No. No more apologies.” Cassie’s tone was kind, but firm. “You can’t move on…We can’t move on if you keep saying you’re sorry. We know and we forgive you.”

“Anyway,” Ashley continued, unhappy at the interruption. “After D.E.C.A. let us know what had happened, we did a little recon of our own.”

“You did?”

“Yep. We followed you around the mall.”

Karone remembered the day well. She’d snuck out of the Dark Fortress after spotting the strange lights decorating the mall and wanting to get a closer look. She remembered the porcelain dolls dressed in red and green. The flashing robots on the shelf below. The train which encircled the entire window display, journeying through artificial snow and miniature trees. She had even transformed herself in order to blend in with the throngs of shoppers. 

“How did you know it was me?”

“We had our ways,” Ashley smiled. “Well, D.E.C.A. did.”

“So…what does that have to do with where we’re going? Are we going to the mall? Because we were just there last week for shopping and…”

“No, not the mall.”

As they came through the edge of the forest, clearing the last of the trees, Karone saw a large blue jeep sitting on the edge of the cliff.

“Stormblaster?” She cringed as she remembered the last time she’d encountered the sentient car. How badly she’d wanted it for herself, and how she’d had to hide that desire from Divatox.

“Courtesy of Justin,” Cassie smiled. “Who’s dying to meet you properly, by the way. Get in.” The three girls rushed to the car and crammed into the front seat, where Ashley promptly pulled a blanket and a thermos of cocoa from under the seat.

“Are we flying somewhere?”

“No. Just watch.” The sun was setting behind them and as the sky grew inky, as the town in the valley below faded into darkness, thousands of points of lights illuminated. Red and white. Green and blue. 

“It’s beautiful,” Karone gasped, her eyes darting to try and take in all of the individual pinpoints of colour. 

“Tonight’s the last night,” Cassie explained, pouring herself another cup of chocolate from the thermos. “My uncle is on the committee and he says that the lights are coming down tomorrow. We thought you might like to see them.”

“And this is the best view,” Ashley said. “We’ve driven Stormblaster all around these hills trying to find the perfect spot. This is definitely it.”

Tears began to well in Korone’s eyes as she gripped her friends’ hands tightly. A year ago, she’d wanted it all gone. Blown to atoms across the universe to pave the way for Dark Specter’s empire. And now…

“Merry Christmas, Karone.”

**Author's Note:**

> Standard disclaimers apply. I do not own any characters herein, I am just borrowing them to enjoy myself while writing and hopefully bring a little bit of happiness to purplestripe66 (and anyone else who reads the story!)
> 
> The plot point of Karone visiting Earth the previous Christmas is taken from purplestripe66's story "Christmas Lights" which should certainly be checked out! I found the story while writing my final draft of this and couldn't resist tying the two together. I hope you don't mind!
> 
> The original prompt was : "After Christmas, Cassie and Ashley take Karone to see the Christmas light display on the last day the lights will be up since she has never seen them. Gen fic, pure fluff please. :)" I hope this is fluffy enough! All of your prompts were awesome and I had such a hard time choosing - don't be surprised if you end up with three other fics gifted to you over the course of 2014 ;)


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